Missionaries serving in Asia learn to rely on the Lord

My district!
L to R: Park, Paskett, Stradling, me, Jensen, Friedmann.
This shows how perfectly awkward our district was

So earlier this week Sister Marsden told me a quote "Missionaries Serving in the States learn to preach the Gospel in English. Missionaries serving in Foreign Countries learn to preach the gospel in a foreign language. And missionaries serving in Asia learn to rely on the Lord." This week I really learned that the hard way.

This was by far the hardest week I have been out so far. Not for any reason other than the past few weeks of actually being a missionary finally are hitting me. And its hard. I had quite a few break downs this week and sometimes I thought that I didn't want to go on, and was praying that I could just go home because I hated it. Everyone always tells you that missionary work is hard but you don't really realize how hard it actually is until you have been here for a month. And I was talking to sister Marsden about it and she said that missionary work is so much harder than anything else because you never get a break. And that is so true! You're always a missionary even on PDay there is no such thing as a break. So its really taxing to your body mentally emotionally physically and spiritually. Anyways, so really hard week for no reason other than being a missionary is the most taxing thing I have ever done. So Thursday and Friday and Saturday were really bad, then, when I was talking to sister Marsden about it, she suggested I get a blessing.

The priesthood is real. And it really is God's authority. I asked our zone leader Elder Paskett to give me a blessing. He had no idea what was going on with my life besides feeling like I needed a blessing. And that blessing he gave me answered all of my prayers. I have been praying to really gain a testimony of the book of Mormon and to better recognize the spirit in my life. I also have been praying that the Lord give me the strength to endure because I have just wanted to give up a LOT. And in the blessing. Elder Paskett blessed me to gain a love for the Book of Mormon and to feel the promptings of the spirit with more clarity. He also blessed me to have the physical, mental, and emotional strength to meet the demands of a mission. EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED! I always believed in the power of the priesthood but wow, it was a humbling experience when a guy I barely knew answered every single one of my prayers in a blessing. The priesthood is real! And I don't know what I would do without it :)

Anyways onto the other things about this week. Transfers are this week! Sister Hilton is being transferred so that's depressing :( and pretty much our whole zone is being changed but hopefully it will be fun. We met with Amanda this week and she asked us to bear our testimonies to her! So that was exciting. And she talked to us about how she feels like she has been so focused on studying English that she has turned her back on God recently. Sister Stradlings response to that was " Maybe that's why we are in your life." Totally the answer! In Pres. Monson's talk, "We Never Walk Alone" from the last relief society session, he shares a poem about prayers. She said that she wanted to memorize the poem and she added a line of her own to the end. It said "And I will endure to the end." We love her she's great :)

Then there's Stella. We have been struggling with her lately because she hasn't been coming to church and she hasnt been keeping her commitments. She came to a baptisumal service on Friday with her friend but left before the baptism even happened because her friend wanted to go get dinner. So we were really discouraged. But after church yesterday she texted us and said "I regret that I didnt come to worship today. I think it purifies my mind. I shjould attend worship every Sunday. and make it a duty." So it looks like things might be looking up with her too! We attended her college graduation on Friday and met her parents. It was a really good experience and she was really touched that we came

We also met with a member of our ward this week  who teaches kids arts and crafts and she wants us to come in a teach our 30/30 program to them once a week (30 min english 30 mins gospel) and we got two refferals from members up in Seoul who want us to teach their nieces English and introduce them to the gospel! So it was a pretty good week besides the break downs but those are just minor details :)

I hope everything is going well for you and you all have a great week :)

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

Posing With Confusius

Me in front of a huge tree.

This is what happens at night on a regular basis

These are from today. We went to this really famous paintings on houses this that I don't know the name of right off hand i have it written down but it was so fun! The Korean women in the pictures is our young women's president and the other white girl is Rebekah shes in our ward and just moved her to teach English. Shes the secretary in young women

 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Me Playing the Sticks Game

Happy Valentines day everyone! I hope it was great :)

 

This week was great :)

 

On Monday we visted a member and shared Alma 7:11-12 with her and I shared my testimony on it (or what I could say about my testimony on it) and when I finished she went on and on about how much she could feel the spirit as I was talking and she was almost brought to tears because the spirit was so strong. So that made me feel better about my language skills (or lack there of).

 

We had to drop one of our invetigators this week :( Kim ae ran. We saw it coming but it was still really sad to hear her say she had no interest in our church and just wanted to learn English :( it broke my heart.

 

But on a brighter note we had training up in Daejeon this week and I got to see everyone I was in the MTC with! It was good :)

 

Our elders at the ward party left to right:
Friendmann, Park, Jensen, Paskett.
Friedmann is my district leader and Paskett is our zone leader

We had a valentines day party with the ward on Friday and it was crazy! We had four investigators and potentials come so we were very busy. But it was so fun! We played this traditional Korean game where you throw sticks on a mat. I still dont know how to play it but then ladies in the ward would just give me the sticks and I would throw them and they would cheer. Apparently we ended up winning the game.

Our Winning Picture!  (The two photoboms are my favorite) :)
One is Elder Paskett and the other is just a man in our ward.

 

 

Amanda is progressing really well! She came to church yesterday! Which is huge. Granted she just came for the last 30 min of Relief Society and she was so painfully shy that she wouldn't even come into the room so Sister Stradling and I took her into another room with just us three but she came to church! We had people come one at a time after church to say hi to her then we had a lesson with a lady in our ward who is super friendly. We were kinda worried about how the lesson went because Amanda looked like she was really uncomfortable the whole time but that must have just been because she didn't know the lady because she sent us a text later that said "Hi, I am happy to meet you again on Sunday! I can receive  a lot of comfort talking to you. You sisters have very lovely hearts. See you later!" So cute! I love it when they try to speak or text in English! Anyways we meet with her pretty much every day so well see how that progress goes.

 

Our new name tag with English and Korean on it!  We got them at training.

 

 

We are really worried about Stella. She hasnt come to church for the past two weeks and shes not really answering our calls. She came to the vanentines day party and seemed fine but at church yesterday the Elders told us that Brian told them that she is rethinking her baptismal date. So if you could just pray for her that would be great.

 

I love you all and hope you had a fantastic week!

--

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

Just Another Week Across the Pacific!

This is how you do the korean peace signs correctly

Nothing too exciting happened this week so this email probably wont be horribly long but I do have a few fun stories to tell.

First off I am now starting to get letters! I got a letter from dad earlier this week that he sent before I left Korea so it really is snail mail but it was exciting. :) And I got both of the packages you sent me! They are AMAZING! We love them. :) They came on Wednesday I think? So packages come super fast.

I had my first zone conference this week! We were able to get out of Jeon-Ju which was really exciting. I was able to meet the paratrooper at zone conference. He is an investigator I'm still not quite sure why he has that name but apparently he shows up at all the missionary gatherings because he some how finds out about them then gives all the sisters socks and all of the missionaries little plastic animal things that look really creepy...he gave me a lion/dog. It is a lion with a dog face and the eyes terrify me. Apparently everyone in the whole mission knows about him. He's slightly strange and is one of the people who thinks he knows English but he doesn't. He was talking to me in English but I had no idea what he was saying so I just smiled and nodded my head the whole time.

So almost all parks have exercise equipment so this is when we played on it :)

Another funny story: so on Saturday night, Sister Stradling and I were walking to the bus stop and we got stopped by this older man and he beckoned us over. He was a little bit tipsy. He walked into his shop and we saw that all of his friends were getting drunk as well. We were really scared that he was going to offer us alcohol but he came out with rice cakes and made us start to eat them in front of him. After we left we were scared to finish them (he gave us a TON) and When we talked to the elders they told us we should probably just throw it away so we did. But that is my first experience with drunk men in Korea!

More playing on the exercise equipment while waiting for an appointment with a member

I also got my first number on the bus this week! This was probably the highlight of my week because I really have trouble proselyting. Like a lot. I really don't like it at all but I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I have to do it. So at one point on the bus I started talking to the lady next to me and she was impressed that I "knew" Korean so she started talking to me super fast and I had no idea what she was saying ever but after a little bit of bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon in broken Korean I gave her my planner to write her number in and she did! then when she was getting off she told me to call her! (I had no idea that's what she said sister Stradling told me that later) so that was exciting :)

Now for the spiritual highlight of the week: Last night we met with Amanda and we talked to her about the Liahona (the Korean Ensign) and showed her the conference version. Then somehow we got on the topic of angels and she started talking about times when she had felt the help of angels in her life! So exciting! Then we gave her a talk by president Monson to read that he gave at the last relief society broadcast. She's still really dedicated to her church though but she always wants to meet with us so hopefully her heart softens.

But that was pretty much my week! I hope life at home is going well! I love you all so much and pray for you all the time :)

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It was a week full of lots of food and missionary meetings because we couldn't proselyte on Thursday through Sunday.

 

At the beginning of the week we had another lesson with Amanda and we asked her if she would be baptized but we asked her in English and at first she thought we meant she had to take a test of the material we were teaching her (#languagebarrierproblems) then when she finally realized what we were saying she said she would think about it because she was afraid of water. We said that she could have as much time as she needs. At the next lesson we taught her this week, we had our ward mission leader come (who is AMAZING!) but she showed up an hour and a half late. She always shows up late but usually it's only half an hour. That time was bad. But he waited with us the whole time said hi to her then had to leave. At that lesson we found out that she is very involved in her church and she really didn't understand why she needed to join ours when the church believes in God. It was really rusticating because we asked her what was different about our church and she named off all these good things like a prophet and the Book of Mormon and stuff but she just didn't understand why it was so important to convert to ours when she already believes in God. But we're meeting with her again this week so we'll see what happens.

 

On a happier note we are really building relationships with the members of our ward including our bishop. One step at a time to not be the flowers of the ward anymore! (that's actually what he called the sisters a few transfers back not the pretty faces but it means the same thing) We had two people come up to us during church to schedule appointments with us which hasn't happened for almost a year apparently so that was exciting. Also earlier this week we went and visited the bishop and actually got invited into his apartment which NEVER happens. And we shared a spiritual message with him and then got to see his two week old twins! So cute! And they gave us food :) another step out of being just a flower :)

 

As for the food, there was lots of it this week. Which is funny because at the beginning of the week we seriously thought that we wouldn't get invited anywhere then on Friday we ate with the Elders in our ward (there's six of us all together) at the stake relief society president's house, then on Saturday we ate at our ward mission leader's house, and his wife is a chef so we had a Korean meal that is apparently from ancient Korea so that was cool. Then on Sunday we ate at another member's house. Last night the bishop and all his kids (besides his wife and the youngest twins) came which was like six people all together. It was really fun. The member lives out in the country so it was a long bus ride but totally worth it. The bishop totally said that sister Stradling was a wonderful companion! Another step to not being the flowers anymore! After dinner, the bishop left with one of the boys that was there and like 20 mins later he came back with a ton of ice cream. The bishop totally bought us all ice cream on Sunday. We all got a kick out of that.

 

 

Me!

Me!

 

This week P-Day was Friday because of the holiday and the three sisters I live with and I had such a good time. We made a happy new years poster thing and went to a very authentic Korean place and took pictures. 

Jumping Companionship.

We were taking jumping pictures and at one point I was getting a jumping picture taken of me and none of the sisters could get it right so this older Korean man came over and took my camera from them and said "jumping?" and I said yes so he tried to take a good picture of me jumping but he didn't count for me so it didn't work very well but let me tell you the other sisters got amazing pictures of him trying to take a jumping pictures of me. Ill have to get it from them and send it to you sometime.

Sister Stradling (right) and I

 

 

Stradling, Me, Hilton, and Marsden with our Sign.

Stella is doing great. We asked her if there was anything that we could do to help her prepare for her baptism and she just asked if she had to buy a white dress. She is so ready. Her husband, Brain, is what is holding her back right now. He is meeting with the Elders and he has a lot of doctrinal concerns but hopefully his heart will be softened and he wont make her push back her date.

Anyways that was my week. I hope all is well at home and that everyone is having a great time :) I love you all! Happy New year! 
 

Sister Stradling (right) and I

--  Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

BAPTISIMAL DATE!



This is our Chapel! We have the best chapel in Korea :)
Literally. Its the nicest church in the country for our church. We are blessed :)

We got a baptismal date this week! But that happened on Saturday so I will get to that towards the end of the email :)

On Monday night, we visited the hospital with one of our members to visit two of our members that are there. And it was great! Sister Stradling and I both bore our testimonies on Alma 7:11-12 and so did our member. And he gave us a referral! The referral doesn't look super promising though. She is kinda more interested in learning English and not religion because she is Buddhist but that could change.

This week we really focused on building relationships with the members which is super difficult when you don't speak the language but we are making it work. They think it is so cute when we try to speak Korean and they correct us which is super helpful in trying to speak. One of the sisters in our ward even gave us a lesson on things in the kitchen! She pointed to the microwave and a kettle and stuff like that and said the Korean word for it. I don't remember any of it but it was cute.

This week I realized just how powerful missionary prayers really are. So our investigators weren't really the best ever and we were getting super discouraged because we just wanted to proselyte less and teach more so we started praying for more investigators. Prays answered! The Elders gave us THREE referrals this week which is apparently unheard of. And on a less spiritual note: we prayed for more rice and fruit because food here is ridiculously expensive and when we visited our members they gave us fruit and rice! The gospel's true.



This is our bishop's door. All of the members who live in apartments have hearts on this door.
It makes it really easy to find them

Before I talk about our new investigator I have to tell a funny story. So we have someone called a house leader in our house. Their job is to make sure the light is off at 10:30 and on at 6:30. Sister Marsden got that calling. She was so stressed that she wouldn't get up right at 6:30 the first morning she was doing it that she woke up at 12:30 and thought it was 6:30 so she turned on the light and told us to wake up then started to pray. Sister Stradling slowly got into the pray position as well, I threw the blanket over my head and Sister Hilton was the only one who thought to look at the clock. Then in her own word she said "For some reason I felt compelled to stand up and announce that it was midnight then go over and turn the light off for everyone." Sister Hilton is farthest from the door and had to climb over Sister Marsden to turn off the light. It was a bonding moment for all of us once we got over that she woke up us at midnight.

Anyways, our cute little new investigator. Her name is Choi Jeen Sun (최 진선). The Elders found her on the street and she contacted us because she had a huge English test she needed help preparing for that she took yesterday. The first day we taught her about Joseph Smith and it was kind of rough but the thing that she was most confused about was why she hadn't heard about him before because she believes in God and reads the bible and everything. she's actually really interested in what we have to say. And she contributed to why Saturday was such a good day!

Saturday! We met with all three of our investigators ( we dropped the crazy one when we picked up Jeen Sun her English name is Amanda) First we met with Kim Ae Ran (김 애란) and she didn't totally reject us when we asked her to be baptized! She didn't say yes but she was just kinda trying to wrap her mind around that we were telling her her baptism wasn't valid. So that was a huge improvement! Then we met with Stella at a members house with a member and it was so good! We finished off the commandments and we told her the next step was to get baptized when she was ready then she picked a date! March 30th! Still really far away and we are going to try and push it up if we can but she picked a date! WE HAVE A BAPTISUMAL DATE! Easily the highlight of our week. Then on top of that we met with Amanda that night and we showed her the restoration video and the spirit was so strong. After the video we asked her what she thought and she paused then said "I think this really happened." YES! IT TOTALLY DID! So exciting!  Saturday was the best day ever.

We met with Amanda again last night and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and we are meeting with her again tonight. Life is good and God is great :)

Anyways that was my week :) I hope life in the states is going well for every one! I love you all!

SOUTH KOREA!

I made it to Korea and let me tell you: jet lag is real and it sucks. But I think I'm adjusted now so were good.

 

And now for what I know you have all been wondering about: they did feed us on the plane. Three meals to be exact. And it was worse than the MTC food but I was grateful for food.

 

Anyways, we arrived at Incheon airport at around 8:00 then when we got through customs and everything we couldn't find our mission president for at least half an hour. We were just about to call the mission home when me and sister Jenson decided to make one more lap around the airport. That airport is huge by the way. anyways so were walking and were heading back because we gave up and we ran into the APs actually they had to call us because we walked right past them but we found them and we got into Daejeon at midnight then had to wake up at 6 to get ready for the day. With jet lag that was a pretty bad night's sleep but I have recovered since then. Anyways our first few days at the mission home were pretty much just president shin telling us what he expects of us. He took us to a restaurant where we sat on the floor while we ate. I have had much more of a desire to sit on the floor while I am here but I'm pretty sure that is because the floors are heated and clean because no shoes are allowed on them so its nice. Anyways President Shin has set a goal for the mission that he calls BRT 122 which means baptism: 1 per tranfer, referals: 2/week, and teaching 2/hr per day. Which is actually really hard to accomplish but hopefully we'll be getting more investigators soon. but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

 

Oh Thursday we got told who our trainers are and what area we are assigned to! My trainer is (drum roll....) Sister Stradling! Shes from Arizona and one of the first things she said to me was that she doesn't know Korean so it has been a interesting last few days but she's great :) we just struggle to understand anything anyone is saying to us. I am serving in 전주 (which i  think the romanization is Jeon-Ju) its about an hour and a half bus ride south of Daejeon. My area has been one of the least successful in the mission but president is really pressing to change that. We are trying to develop a better relationship with the members right now so that they can give us referals. Which is difficult when we both struggle with the language but we are trying our best.

 

Me and Sister Stradling

Oh and now I know that when people say the guest house is the nicest place missionaries live it is so true. We live on the 10th floor or a run down apartment building. Our lights are going out and the light in our study room flickers so every time it's on I feel like its in a scene from a horror movie. We are fixing that today though. And I'm jealous you feed the elders all the time! Apparently if we get two member meals a transfer we are lucky. But its all good. :) There's four of us all living in our little apartment and we sleep on little mattresses on the floor and its great. :) The girls I live with are way fun. We all get along really well.

 

Funny story: So we were proselyting and we ran into a girl who kept shaking my hand and saying in broken English that she was excited to meet with us and I was so confused why Sister  Stradling wasn't asking for her number or anything. Then once we left she told me she was one of our investigators but that she was crazy then proceeded to tell me a story about how this lady just wants to get married really bad and I guess at one point she told one of the Elders that she just wanted a baby and asked him if he would help her. Needless to say the Elder was scarred for a while. And that pretty much sums up one of our investigators.

 

On Saturday we taught two lessons: one with 김애련 (Kim ae raan) sorry romanization is hard, who apparently is more interested in learning English than the gospel but I thought it went over well. And another one with a girl named Stella who has said she will get baptized in March. We are trying to set an actual date but she is a little resistant. Hopefully we can set one at the next lesson. Those are all of our investigators and really only one of them (Stella) is really interested in the gospel so its hard. The bishop doesn't really help the sisters out because he thinks we are just the pretty faces in the ward but he helps out the elders all he can so that's hard too.

 

Saturday night we spent an hour looking for a members house in another part of our area and we never ended up finding it but we found a street that had a ton of night clubs on it. We call it night club row. Ironically is was the place we felt the most comfortable in that side of town because it was the most lit up.

 

Anyways, we went to church yesterday! I'm pretty sure every single member came up to me and told me I was pretty. Sister Stradling told me that pretty much happens everywhere you go. I had to introduce myself over the pulpit in Korean. Pretty much the most terrifying thing I have ever done. I pretty much just said my name where I'm from, that I'm not good at Korean but I can bear my testimony then I bore my testimony. After sacrament, a member came up to me and gave me a sticky note that said "Sister Collyer, Your Korean is perfect. Keep go on studying Korean." then told me my pronunciation was perfect! It made me feel good :) all those years of suffering though Korean in high school payed off!

 

I had my first dinner at a members house last night! They rarely happen so that was exciting. No weird foods yet though. We  taught them the first lesson just for practice and we were kinda in a rush so we hurried through it. The father of the family didn't like that. He criticized us for probably about 20 mins about how we need to explain all the terms we were using or our investigators will be really confused. Not the best note to end on but his wife was a sweetheart and he was just trying to help. His wife kinda got mad at him for being so hard on us though because we are American and we struggle with Korean anyways. It was good to get to know the members though even if I had no idea what they were saying and they had to pull out their Korean to English dictionary a ton.

 

Korea is WAY different than the states. I swear there are no traffic laws here. It is not uncommon for cars to drive and park on the sidewalks. The buses are crazy and I have never seen cars get so close together without crashing. Pedestrians don't have the right of way so you really so have to look both ways before crossing the street but I love it here. The people are so kind and I am excited to see what the next year and a half have in store for me.

 

I love you all and I hope life at home is going well :)

- Sister Collyer 콜리여 자매 (kol-lee-yeo ja- mae)

 

PS sorry about all my spelling mistakes I'm typing fast. Hopefully it all makes since. There's no spell check here.

 

LAST FEW DAYS IN THE MTC!

I cant believe my time at the MTC ends on Monday! Crazy. It has been such a hectic week but its been great.

On Friday sister Jenson and I skyped TRC with a Korean girl and it went so well! We talked about prayer and we could understand about 60% of what she was saying. So exciting.

Then on Saturday I had CMS which is like tutoring with Sister Baek who actually grew up in Pasadena and know David Corless and Mariah Moffat and such which is cool. but anyways I just wanted to practice listening and speaking with her. So she shared her conversion story then had me tell her what I understood and I understood about 50% of what she said! Big self esteem boost there. Then she had me share why I decided to go on a mission in Korean and it was very broken Korean but I got the point across. the spirit was so strong it was fantastic and the gift of tongues is so real because I didn't think I knew that much Korean.

On Sunday I got released from being sister training leader and let me tell you. I was being blessed a lot by that calling because these past few days have been rough. Monday was definitely the most trying day at the MTC. I scheduled my MRI for tomorrow because infield orientation that is mandatory was supposed to be today. Well we found out that they actually switched in field to Friday so we would be missing it because of my MRI and the health center wouldn't let me change it. Sister Jenson was not happy with me and I was stressed because she wasn't happy then I started getting even more stressed because people were telling me that I would be taking too much medication on the plane and it was just bad. So I talked to sister Bagley about it and she actually comforted me a lot. She talked to me about how many lives I've touched already and that I just had to really trust in the Lord. And I realized she was right. I mean I always knew that but it was good that she reminded me. And Now I'm totally calm about the whole situation and I know it is in the Lords hands and that everything is going to work out because he needs me in Korea :) Sister Jenson and I also got a blessings from Elder Payne in our district which was so good. That was another thing that calmed me down because he said the Lord wouldn't let anything go wrong and to stop worrying about how I'm going to get to Korea, just be excited to go. I felt like that day brought Sister Jenson and I closer than we already are because we were both in tears by the end of our blessings and we just hugged forever and it was great :)

Tuesday was a really good day :) We had an amazing devotional by Bishop Stevenson, the presiding bishop of the church, and his wife. one thing his  wife said really struck me. She said, "Be thankful everyday you get to put on that badge because the day you have to take it off will be the worst day of your life." I realized that I really haven't been magnifying my calling as much as I should and I sent goals to really make the most of this short time where I am dedicating myself to the Lord. I want to be able to say I did everything I could to serve the Lord during the short time I have to dedicate my life to him.

We had the best district devotion ever after that! It was the last one we were going to have which is sad. But the spirit was so strong and I realized how much I truly do love all the people in my district and I'm going to miss them so much. we all decided that we are the spirit doctors because we heal peoples spirits. It was a great meetings.

Well the next time I email you I am going to be all the way across the Pacific Ocean! I love you all so much and I hope your week is going amazingly!

북음은 참됩니다! (The gospel is true!)